They got started talking about a pop-up last fall, spending two-and-a-half months developing their first menu. Then they went public with Element by holding a one-off dinner Jan. 24 at downtown’s Wine Dive.

The three young men are bluntly ambitious. Dinger said their long-term goal is to start a standalone restaurant, not just an occasional series of dinners as is typical with pop-up restaurants.

And they would like to put Springfield chefs on the map.

“We want to be the first people from Springfield to win a James Beard Award in the state of Missouri,” Dinger said.

Invoking the name of James Beard — a culinary teacher and food media personality who died in 1985 — is no small thing in the chef community. The James Beard Awards are the Oscars of American food.

More: Karai, a Midwestern temple to the ramen noodles of Japan, is now open